Search for Brisbane business snaps into place for Louise Dodd

New owner, Louise Dodd, takes the reins at Snap Rocklea.

Dodd, (pictured) who has previously set up and run two businesses, spent the last year searching for a new business to buy. “I looked at over 100 businesses and used selection criteria to ensure I was making the best possible decision about which one to purchase,” she said.

The Snap store was the only printing business which Dodd looked at. Earlier this year, StartupSmart listed printing as one of the top five start-ups to avoid in 2011. Dodd acknowledged that “the printing industry itself is slowing a little”, but pointed to Snap’s expansion into other areas, such as marketing and web design (last year, the franchise even removed ‘Printing’ from its name).

“We are spreading out,” Dodd said. Next year, Snap Rocklea will become a Snap Level 2 centre.

Only two weeks into her new life in the printing industry, Dodd is enjoying the change. She is also proud to employ a team of three, who are all female. According to Innovation and Business Skills Australia, males made up 68.2 per cent of the production side of the printing industry in February 2009.

“I was very excited to hear that all of the female staff would be staying on at Rocklea in an industry that is typically staffed by men,” she said.